Stormproof car-door.



G. M. KIRBY.

STORMPROOP OAR DOOR.

APPLICATION FILED DEO.19, 1912.

Patented Dec. 23, 1913.

M. Kirby,

INVENTO/f 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

W/T/VESSES M COLUMBlA PLANOORAPH c0.,wAsH|NuToN. D. C.

TJ'TTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GULESBERRY MARION KIRBY, OF AURORA, MISSOURI.

STORMPROOF CAR-DOOR.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, GULnsBnnRY M. KIRBY, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Aurora, in the county of Lawrence and State of Missouri, have invented a new and Improved Stormproof Car- Door, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to an improvement in doors, and the main object thereof is to provide a door for a railway car or other inclosure that will be simple and practical in its construction, easy and cheap to manufacture, and so mounted as to make a perfectly storm-proof covering for the doorway with which the same is to be used.

Another object of my invention is to provide a door of the kind described which is provided with a suitable attachment to enable grain doors to be put in place inside of the storm door and readily detached when they are not needed.

Reference is' to be had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification, in which the same characters of reference indicate the same parts in all the views.

Figure 1 is a side elevation of a car, showing the door in place, part of the construction being broken away to show the grain doors inside of the car; Fig. 2 is a section on the line-22 of Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 is a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

My storm door 1 is designed to be mounted upon the outside of a car 2, and is arranged to slide back and forth along the side of the car to cover and uncover the doorway leading to the interior. For this purpose suitable horizontal guides are arranged along the top and bottom of the doorway extending some distance from the side thereof. The door 1 moves in these guides and a suitable stop 3 is secured in the side of the car to prevent the door from being moved too far when it is necessary to open it. The doorway 4 is provided with door jambs 5, and in this doorway T secure the part by means of which all cracks and openings are closed up when the door is moved to closed position, thus effectually preventing the admission of rain, hail or snow to the inside of the car.

The upper guideway is shown at 6, and is secured to the side of the car at the level of the top sill 7. It is provided with a groove 8 in the bottom, and the side oppo- Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed. December 19, 1912.

Patented Dec. 23,1913. Serial No. 737,632.

' site is sloping, as shown in Fig. 3, so as to afford no lodgement to rain water or other foreign substances that might be deposited thereon. This strip or bar 6 in which the groove 8 is formed likewise has an extension 9, as shown in Fig. 3, which is bent over the top of the sill 7 and is secured between the upper side thereof and the roof 10, suitable bolts being employed for this purpose.

The bottom of the doorway t is provided with a plate or casting 11, which extends into the car past the door jambs 5, and is formed at its outer edge to provide the bottom groove 12, in which are mounted rollers 13 supporting the weight of the door 1. This plate has an extension 1-1 shown at the right, which provides a continuation of the groove 12, and in this continuation the lower edge of the door is received when it is moved to open position. The part forming the groove 12 is spaced from the side of the car by means of a strip 15, and it will be understood that this groove is securely fastened to the side of the door through the strip 15, over its entire length, including the extension 14 above referred to. On the left of the doorway at I secure a plate or casting 16, which extends from top to bottom and is formed to extend outside of the car and be provided at its outer edge with a vertical groove 17. This plate 16 is of the same height as the height of the doorway and so is the groove 17, but the back of this groove is extended above and below to close the ends of the grooves 8 and 12, these extensions being shown at 18 on Fig. 1. The door is of slightly greater height than the doorway, as shown in Fig. 8. To the opposite side of the doorway, that is, on the right side, 1 secure a plate 19 of the same height as the doorway, and extending beyond the side of the car it is bent over to form a flange 20, the plane of this flange being parallel with the plane of the door 2. The rear edge of the door is provided with an angle bar 21, the ends of which are flush with the ends of the plate 19, and when the door is in closed position its front edge will be received by the groove 17, and the angle-bar 21 will overlap the flange 20, thus effectually sealing the entrance to the inside of the car.

The plates 16 and 19 are provided along their inner edges with vertical grooves or guidewa-ys 22, and the plate or casing 11 is bent upward along its inner edge to form a stop or shoulder 23, which is in alinement with the rear sides of the grooves 22. This construction is for the purpose of receiving grain doors 2% formed of planks united together by cross-pieces 25, and it will be obvious that these grain doors can be used whenever they are needed, and readily taken out of place when not needed.

The parts providing the upper groove 6, the lower groove 12, the vertical groove 17 and the guideways 22, can of course be cast or otherwise formed separate and secured to one another when they are placed in position in the doorway. I prefer to make the plate 11 with the extension 14: and the grooves 12 in one piece, but obviously any convenient form of making up my car door and the parts cooperating therewith to seal the entrance into the car can be employed.

It will be seen from the above that the construction of my car door is exceedingly simple and practicable, and that my invention is easy and cheap to make. The door can readily be moved to open position, and when closed its edges will be engaged by the three grooves or guideways, and the rear edge will be sealed by means of the flange 20 and the angle-bar 2-1. The car will thus not only be rendered storm proof, but the plates 11, 16 and 19 will protect the wood work of the car against damage when the same is in service.

It will be observed from the above description that there is nothing in the shape of nails or bolts in my storm door construction to protrude from the sides of the car and encounter obstructions. This greatly lessens the possibility of injury.

While my invention is designed especially for cars it is obviously not limited thereto, but may be used on warehouses, granaries or any other place in which goods are to be placed for storage or shipment.

I wish to have it understood that the above description is illustrative only, and that I do not care to be limited to the exact details shown and described, except in so far as indicated by the accompanying claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. In an improvement of the kind described, the combination of a doorway having a sill plate, the outer portion of which is provided with an upwardly opening groove forming a guideway and the inner portion of which is provided with an upstanding flange, and rollers ournaled trans versely in the guideway, all for the purpose described.

2. In an improvement of the kind described, the combination of a doorway having a sill plate, the outer portion of which is bent to provide an upwardly opening groove forming a guideway, and one side of which plate is provided with an extension also bent to provide a groove forming a guideway, said guideways being continuous and spaced from the sill of the doorway, and a strip secured in the space between the said sill and the said guideways.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GULESBERRY MARION KIRBY. lVitnesses \VALTER Pnamuss, CHAS. G. WVINKLER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G. 

